Teacher Discussion Forums

I'm sure it happens a lot more than you would expect - with a lot of the consequences you would expect. It's kind of sad because some of these kids actually will need the extra attention, sheltering, etc and either will get it at the detriment of others that also need extra time or won't get it beca...

What would be the key to making a two teacher classroom work? I feel like having two teachers would work well as long as they each have a very defined role. In your experiences have you taught successfully with someone? If it wasn’t successful, what do you think got in the way of success?

I think that ultimately, if we here to teach English, we have to remember that while maintaining the L1 is important, is not the most important thing. Especially in a bilingual classroom, it could be very tempting to use the L1 more to sort of counteract them using their L1 less out of the classroom...

Does anyone have experience with two way immersion programs? It looks pretty good on paper because both groups learn some in their own language and some in the new language, and also because they each get exposure to each other. However, I’m a little concerned that one group may get more out of the ...

People's cultures are a huge part of their life. It has a huge effect on how they see the world, and how they do activities and work in their life. Whether this comes in the way of their learning and our teaching depends on our ability to see all these differences in a positive light and encourage e...

ESL students in most models still spend a lot of their time in regular classrooms with regular content teachers. Our time with them is going to be limited. To counteract the lack of time together, do you work with the content teachers to help your students even while you are not there? What sort of ...

It depends on what you want your students to get out of them (and what age). Any Disney movie should have more clearly spoken plainer english. Both the travel channel and food network have good shows that travel around the US and the world. They show varying aspects of food and culture and most of t...

I know in my experiences learning languages I've always regressed a little during summer vacation. Does your school have a summer program? If not, is there any you do or recommend for your students?

What I've noticed from talking to current bilingual education teachers is that many are not trained (or not sufficiently trained) in Bilingual Ed specifically. What changes would you make to existing programs for Bilingual educators? How do you think think we could encourage more people to become Bi...

I think that as educators, we can help them see value in their L1 in many ways, such as using their culture in lessons. I do think it is important that we do our best, but the family is the first frame of reference, and our success (in maintaining the L1) is largely dependent on them.

Do you structure your classes differently depending on if your class is largely the same language background or if they are largely different? If so, how would you do things differently? I am curious because in my area there are lots of areas where both situations are realities and I feel like each ...

It seems to me that TPR/Kinesthetic Learning is both good for learning, and for keeping the classroom involved. Personally, I am a kinesthetic learner and that has always worked well for me. However some people do learn differently and it is always good to put a bit of other writing and listening ex...